Manchester United 3-1 Huddersfield: 6 Men who were brilliant for Solskjaer in the Boxing Day fixture

#2 Juan Mata

Keeping him out of the team against Cardiff must have been a tough decision for Solskjaer, but when the opportunity presented itself, Solskjaer immediately put the Spaniard back into his team. The Norwegian seemed to understand Mata's abilities well because contrary to how he had been used until now, the Spaniard was given a free role and it worked wonders.

Mata started on the right and did spend a little time there, but it was clear that he had the freedom that he deserved. He popped up in the middle, on the right and even took passes from the deep.

Mata was aware of the speed of the players around him and used that to great effect. He regularly tried to find the runs of Rashford and Lingard but was also lethal during the counter-attacks. He also combined well with Rashford on quite a few occasions and it was from one of those that United scored a beautiful goal to take away the game from the opposition.

He was replaced by young Angel Gomes in the 81st minute, but by then, Juan Mata had done enough to see Manchester United through.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over seven years at Sportskeeda. He has written more than 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 20 million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

Know More

Edited by deebak mohan